FREE WHITEWATER

Free Markets

Cabs and Free Markets

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Cabs are often hard to find, and they’re more expensive than they would be if they were more plentiful. Why is that?

Jeanette Petersen of the Institute for Justice talks about the reasons it’s hard to get a cab:

Cabs can also be greener than other forms of transportation. They take a specific number of people from one spot to another, seeking the shortest, fastest route possible. Under-used trains, buses, or trolleys — especially in the evening — may make dozens of needless stops on winding routes with few passengers.

Taxis’ advantages would be even more pronounced with fewer protectionist barriers to entry to the industry.

Posted on 8.28.12 @ Daily Adams.

School District, Technology

Technology Support in the Whitewater Schools

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At the 8.27.12 board meeting for the Whitewater Schools, there was a presentation from Charlie Barr, Technology Coordinator, on the possibility adding a full-time technology supervisor to the few interns now working for him. The discussion took place from approx. 38:35 to 1:12:40 during the board meeting.

I well understand the need for due diligence when evaluating a request, but the need here seems clear. The Whitewater Schools should conduct a review, and hire where needed, at the earliest opportunity: this district needs a more robust program than a single staff member and a group of interns. It’s done well for itself that way, for now, but that’s a limited-term solution.

(Much of the cost would come from current vacancies in the intern contingent.)

There are, combined, thousands of students, faculty, and administrators, across six buildings in the district (including the administration building). We should provide more for technology support if we are to be competitive. Only when that happens will the equally important work of expanded technology integration be available for students and faculty.

A business similarly situated, with several plants and thousands in its buildings, would have a larger staff than one fulltime employee. That the district’s business is, so to speak, intellectual, and that scholarship relies on computer technology to be competitive, makes our situation even more pressing.

Technology isn’t a second-level concern. Technology is a first-order concern for a school, just as a breathable atmosphere is a first-order concern for an animal: both perish without it. Those who doubt the value of clean air might wish to trade America’s clear skies for a visit to a befouled Chinese city, choked with brown air. I’m sure Chinese planners think that they’re doing the right thing by focusing on production at the expense of air quality. They’re simply creating a generation of sick and feeble workers.

The district’s priority should be evident, in favor of more robust support. Students are in constant forward motion, toward graduation. What students don’t receive while here from a robust and well-supported environment is to their detriment. It’s to our detriment, too, as they’ll be less inclined to return here.

Delay is debilitating; the faster the better. The board should act promptly in favor of additional, full-time support.

City, Police

Alert Alert!

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People shouldn’t steal, and that includes stealing from stores. Virtually everyone believes this. It’s harmful to merchants, and infuriating to honest customers.

That some will, on occasion, commit these crimes doesn’t lessen the obligation of government to publicize that information both effectively and cleverly. It may be effective initially to post a shoplifting notice, with photographs and a headline ending in an exclamation point, but it’s surely not clever.

If it’s not clever, it’s not the best approach.

It’s not clever because alerts about small property crimes (wrong although those crimes are) seem overwrought and excessive when compared with necessary alerts about crimes of violence, missing child alerts, large-scale thefts, or any crimes where a suspect brandishes a weapon.

Those are the crimes that one typically reserves for a photographic alert, and expanding the pool of crimes treated this way diminishes the significance of those other alerts. Worse, it risks making the shoplifting alert look like a parody of the more serious missing-person alerts.

(The Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, headquartered at UW-Madison, also cautions that there’s a liability risk for misidentification of shoplifters, where the risk should be weighed against the relatively small value of the crime: “May have some limited value in deterring shoplifting, but where those identified have not been convicted by a court, both the merchants and the police engaged in the practice are vulnerable to legal challenge.”)

Over at the City of Whitewater’s webpage, there’s a SHOPLIFTING ALERT! about someone who allegedly stole merchandise from Walmart and Daniels Sentry.

It’s one of the worst ways to market the city to someone successful from beyond Whitewater: it risks looking like a parody of more serious alerts, makes the town seem more provincial than it is, and will cause people to wonder about how the city government directs its focus.

Adding an exclamation mark and all capitals (SHOPLIFTING ALERT!) only brings the notice even closer to a parody.

Shoplifting is wrong, but it’s also a down-market crime, and emphasizing it at the city’s website only makes the city look down-market, too.

This is easy for some people to see, but very hard for others to grasp.

City government needs someone who understands messaging beyond the perception of a few overly-insular residents.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.28.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Tuesday will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty-six.

The city’s Urban Forestry Commission meets today at 4:15 PM.

The History Channel has a tribute to the late Neil Armstrong, with a slideshow, audio of Armstrong on the moon, and a video about the space race with the Soviets.

On this day in 1862, a famous Union Army brigade fought its first battle:

On this date the Iron Brigade (Western soldiers) fought their first battle at Browner Farm. The unit was composed of the 2nd Infantry, 6th Infantry, 7th Wisconsin Infantry, and the 19th Indiana Infantry, 24th Michigan Infantry, and Battery B of the 4th U.S. Light Artillery and was well known for its valor at such Civil War battles as Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg. [Source: WHS Card File].

Via Wisconsin Historical Society.

Google’s daily puzzle asks about particle physics: “The nuclear particle consisting of one down quark and two up quarks has what kind of charge?” more >>

City

The Advantage of a Pressed Shirt

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Friends of mine and I had a conservation over the weekend about how a pressed shirt made a capable professional (a doctor) seem more skilled at his profession than someone with wrinkled clothes. One might readily acknowledge that the doctor was as intelligent, as educated, and as insightful regardless of application of starch to his shirts.

Nonetheless, even to a person who knew the doctor’s many professional accomplishments, that small bit of starch would work a powerful impression: an excellent doctor would seem even better.

What’s true of professional attire is true of storefronts, too (perhaps more so): some sprucing up works a big improvement. I don’t think for a minute that sprucing up should be government’s job, but it should be one of a proprietor’s first tasks.

A few cans of paint and a broom make a big difference. Even if a municipality picks up the trash, any proprietor worth frequenting should be doing his or her own sweeping near the storefront.

If that seems too hard for someone, then he’s probably in the wrong line of work.

Normal people don’t want to shop along streets that look like litter-strewn alleys because, mostly, they are litter-strewn alleys.

We’ve extraordinary natural beauty in town, and the potential to be a quaint and popular destination for our Wisconsin neighbors and for Illinois visitors.

But those few who won’t keep tidy deserve neither customers’ patronage nor even the slightest municipal assistance.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.27.12

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Good morning.

Monday looks to be a sunny day, with a high of eighty-six, and northwest winds at 5 to 10 miles per hour.

On this day in 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe to Venus. It was the first probe to reach another planet.

The Wisconsin Historical Society records Wisconsin’s role in creation of the typewriter, patented on this day in 1878:

On this date Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. The idea for this invention began at Kleinsteuber’s Machine Shop in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. A mechanical engineer by training, Sholes, along with associates Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, spent hours tinkering with the idea. They mounted the key of an old telegraph instrument on a base and tapped down on it to hit carbon & paper against a glass plate. This idea was simple, but in 1868 the mere idea that type striking against paper might produce an image was a novelty.

Sholes proceeded to construct a machine to reproduce the entire alphabet. The prototype was sent to Washington as the required Patent Model. This original model still exists at the Smithsonian. Investor James Densmore provided the marketing impetus which eventually brought the machine to the Remington Arms Company. Although Remington mass-marketed his typewriter beginning in 1874, it was not an instant success. A few years later, improvements made by Remington engineers gave the machine its market appeal and sales skyrocketed. [Source: Wisconsin Lore and Legends, p.41]

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a man whose name led to a description: “What age in world history is named for the man who introduced pay for jurors?”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.26.12

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Good morning.

Sunday will be a warm day, with a high in the upper seventies, and a likelihood of thundershowers in the afternoon.

On this day in 1939, America saw her first televised major league baseball game:

On this day in 55 BC, Roman legions under Julius Caesar invaded Britain. The effort was limited, and a robust effort to conquer (parts of) Britain waited almost another ninety years. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.25.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Saturday will be sunny, with a high of ninety-one, and light winds from the south.

On this day in 1944, the Allies liberated Paris after four years of Nazi occupation.

Here’s how the frontpage of the New York Times reported the news of that very good day:

The Wisconsin Historical Society marks 8.25.1835 as a step along the way to Wisconsin’s creation:

1835 – Incorporation of the Wisconsin Internal Improvement Company

On this date the Michigan legislature incorporated the Wisconsin Internal Improvement Company to open communication between Green Bay and the Mississippi by land or water. It was also on this day that the Governor of the Michigan territory (the Wisconsin territory was not yet created), Stevens T. Mason, officially called for the creation of a western legistlative council. Both actions were critical to the creation of the Wisconsin Territory. [Source: Card File in WHS Library]

Federal Government, Government Spending, Marketing

Why there’s Room and Reason to Reduce the Military Budget

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There’s much worry – but not reasonable worry – about the imposition of sequestration, across-the-board cuts to reduce overspending, on America’s military budget.

Our fundamental security will always come from a healthy economy that fosters the economic growth and innovation that makes a professional, well-equipped military possible. Second, we would still have an unmatched military after sequestration cuts (in the long run, even a stronger military from a stronger economy).

Cato’s Christopher Preble, Benjamin Friedman, and Dan Mitchell make the case against the unfounded horrors of sequestration on the military budget:

Posted originally on 8.24.12 at Daily Adams.